Elizabeth Warren Takes on Pay-for-Play in Washington

It occasionally amazes me when the Brookings Institute is cited as a "liberal" think-tank, especially since so many of its thinkers tanked themselves over the Iraq War. (Hi, guys!) I guess in comparison to Heritage, and Cato, and the rest of the intellectual chop-shops in town, you can call it "left-leaning," but its record over the past decade leads me to wonder why the Nixon people thought it worth the time and trouble to burglarize and/or firebomb. Recently, one of its scholars wandered into Senator Professor Warren's line of fire. This did not end well.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, stepping up her crusade against the power of wealthy interests, accused a Brookings Institution scholar of writing a research paper to benefit his corporate patrons. Warren's charge prompted a swift response, with Brookings seeking and receiving the resignation of the economist, Robert Litan, whose report criticized a Warren-backed consumer-protection rule targeting the financial services industry.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

This is more than SPW's protecting one of her pet projects. This is a frontal assault on the way the business of ideas is conducted in Washington–which turns out to be exactly the way all the other forms of business are conducted in Washington, as discreet forms of legalized influence peddling.

Brookings over the past decade has embarked on aggressive fundraising drives to pay for major expansions. Investigations last year by the Washington Post, the New York Times and others found that donors had gained the ability to influence Brookings's events and research agenda.

The shift has been powered by a new era of corporate influence in Washington, in which wealthy interests outside government are looking for new avenues to reach policymakers on the inside. Lobbyists are increasingly encouraging clients to donate to Brookings and other think tanks as a way of getting researchers to spend time on the issues that donors care about. Lobbyists say they warn clients not to expect that they can dictate research results from an elite think tank such as Brookings but note that they gain a chance to make their case directly to researchers, stay in touch as papers are written and suggest participants in public forums.